What’s New Wednesday: December 2024 December 11, 2024 – Posted in: IT Support, News, What's New Wednesdays – Tags: it support, ITSupport, Patch Tuesday, patching, SoftwareSupport, WhatsNewWednesday

The Microsoft monthly security update release is published on the second Tuesday of each month. It’s a good idea to restart your PC on the following Wednesday – today. We may well restart some of your servers overnight this week if a patch requires it.

NEW THIS WEDNESDAY

This month’s Patch Tuesday included security updates for 71 flaws including 1 actively exploited zero-day vulnerability. Overall Microsoft patched::

• 27 Elevation of Privilege Vulnerabilities
• 30 Remote Code Execution Vulnerabilities
• 7 Information Disclosure Vulnerabilities
• 5 Denial of Service Vulnerabilities
• 1 Spoofing Vulnerability

There was 1 actively exploited zero-day vulnerability patched:

CVE-2024-49138 – Windows Common Log File System Driver Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability
an actively exploited zero-day that allows attackers to gain SYSTEM privileges on Windows devices, no information has been released yet on how the flaw was exploited.

Releases from other software providers include:

• Adobe – updates for numerous products, including Photoshop, Commerce, Illustrator, InDesign, and more.
• CISA – advisories on industrial control system vulnerabilities in MOBATIME, Schneider Electric, National Instruments, Horner Automation, Rockwell Automation, and Ruijie.
• Cleo – security file transfer is impacted by an actively exploited zero-day used in data theft attacks.
• Cisco – security updates for multiple products including Cisco NX-OS and Cisco ASA.
• IO-Data – zero-day router flaws exploited in attacks to take over devices.
• 0patch – an unofficial patch for a Windows zero-day vulnerability that impacts all Windows versions from Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 up to the latest Windows 11 24H2 and Server 2022 and allows attackers to capture NTLM credentials.
• OpenWrt – security updates for a Sysupgrade flaw that allowed attackers to distribute malicious firmware images.
• SAP – security updates for multiple products.
• Veeam – security updates for a critical RCE bug in Service Provider Console.

FULL LIST OF MICROSOFT PATCHES

GLOSSARY

• Authentication – proving who you are so you can be given access to what you need/have rights to.
• MFA – multi-factor authentication, proving who you are in multiple ways, something you know (like a password or pin), something you are (a fingerprint or retina scan), something you have (like your phone – proved with a code).
• Vulnerability – a defect in software that could allow an attacker to gain control of a system or service.
• Patch – a change to a piece of software, released after sale, to fix a problem or add a feature.
• Zero Day – Microsoft classifies a vulnerability as a zero-day if it is publicly disclosed or actively exploited with no official fix available.
• Actively Exploited – an actively exploited vulnerability is one that is being used by malicious actors.
• DDOS / DOS – (Distributed) Denial of Service attack, a method of swamping a service or server with so many false queries at once that it is forced offline.
• Disclosed – a disclosed vulnerability is one that the software creators have published, meaning that it can be easily found out about by anyone who knows where to look.
• CVE ID – CVE, short for Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures, is a list of publicly disclosed computer security flaws, the ID is the number assigned to that vulnerability.
• Severity – a disclosed vulnerability is one that the software creators have published, meaning that it can be easily found out about by anyone who knows where to look.
• Security Feature Bypass Vulnerabilities – allow for intruders to bypass security features such as password protection or MFA.
• Remote Code Execution Vulnerabilities – allow people to remotely trigger potentially malicious code on your device.
• Information Disclosure Vulnerabilities – allow the wrong people access to your data.
• Denial of Service Vulnerabilities – allow a DOS/DDOS attack to succeed.
• Spoofing Vulnerabilities – allow someone to pretend to be you/your systems.

If you have any concerns about cybersecurity, or would like to discuss any other IT Support needs you might have please give us a call on 01245 265100 or email us at . To stay up to date with our regular What’s New Wednesday emails and receive industry news straight to your inbox, subscribe to our newsletters in the top right.